SVB Trek Entrepreneur Learns How to Forge Passion and Grit into Personal Growth

Forge passion and grit into personal growth

Some entrepreneurs spend years searching for a big problem in need of solving. That’s not the case for Eric Blondeel, co-founder of ExVivo Labs. A niece’s life-threatening allergy prompted him to act. She ended up having to wait more than six months to see an allergy specialist in Canada after difficulty breathing following an allergic reaction.

"We wanted to build a technology that would be more accessible, that could really make an improvement in people’s lives. Medicine doesn’t have to be inconvenient," said Blondeel, who is developing a skin patch to test for allergies. He’s also pursuing his Ph.d in biochemical engineering at Canada’s University of Waterloo.

Find your true grit

Passion is essential to a startup, but success also requires resilience — Blondeel calls it "grit" — and a plan to pull through the days that don’t yield immediate results. "Even from day one, our startup felt like Mount Everest. And on one hand that seems crazy, most people don’t climb Mount Everest, but if you break the problem down you find it’s completely doable."

Using a granular approach, solving one problem at a time, bolsters confidence, he advises. "Before you know it, three years have gone by, and your company has grown to 15 people. It’s wonderful, actually."

How to survive the down times

The fortitude to keep going in the long stretches between successes is a common trait he sees in successful entrepreneurs. Of course, a little "creativity to get out of the messes" doesn’t hurt, either.

Blondeel also now recognizes that failure should be embraced as part of the learning process. As a member of SVB Trek’s class of 2017, Blondeel joined two dozen student entrepreneurs, many of whom also had launched a startup. The group dived headlong into the innovation ecosystem through an immersive learning experience featuring salon-style events, hands-on workshops and interviews with world-renowned tech and VC leaders.

During Trek, he discovered "failing is not just OK, it’s a good thing. You grow from it. That was one of the best moments."

Gain a diverse perspective

Entrepreneurship knows no borders. Blondeel is a child of immigrants and his co-founder was born in Syria. "If you have everybody with the same social background and education, often you all kind of think the same way, and so you might get one solution, which is not bad, but it’s not clever."

On the other hand, he says, "when you put a lot of humanity in a room, we come up with something exciting, and that’s the beautiful thing about diversity and entrepreneurship."

Based on his own experiences and time spent with SVB Trek fellow, Blondeel says he is optimistic: "Phenomenal people are working on important problems. They’re brilliant, they’re hard-working and they’re going to change the world."

Get out of your comfort zone

As for his own journey, Blondeel says he’s preparing for his next role. Sometimes, moving ahead requires founders to take on roles that initially are unfamiliar and leave them uncomfortable. As Blondeel’s company moves into commercialization, he predicts he’ll spend less time on science and more time on salesmanship, at least for a bit. He embraces the opportunity for personal growth: "You get to be different versions of yourself; you grow as a human being and that’s an exciting thing about being an entrepreneur."

Silicon Valley Bank is registered in England and Wales at Alphabeta, 14-18 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1BR, UK under No. FC029579. Silicon Valley Bank is authorised and regulated by the California Department of Business Oversight and the United States Federal Reserve Bank; authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority with number 577295; and subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of our regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority are available from us on request. Silicon Valley Bank is a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, a Delaware corporation and is an affiliate of SVB Financial Group UK Limited. SVB Financial Group UK Ltd is registered in England and Wales at Alphabeta, 14-18 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1BR, UK under No. 5572575 and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, with reference number 446159. SVB Financial Group and its subsidiary Silicon Valley Bank are members of the Federal Reserve System and Silicon Valley Bank is a member of the FDIC.

COOKIE NOTICE: This website uses cookies. View our cookie policy to find out more information on our use of cookies or to find out how to control your cookie settings. Please tick this box to consent to our use of cookies.